January 2025 – Karla's Cottage

More charm necklaces

By Karla Nathan / January 31, 2025

One of the advantages of having a bigger space at Good Juju is that I’ll have room to actually display my hand made necklaces. My jewelry had been crowded into a smaller area and these pieces were mostly hung on hooks.

Which certainly did not show them off to their best advantage. Especially the charm necklaces. They need to be spread out to show how they will look while being worn.

I’m taking advantage of having more space to fill by using it as an excuse to craft more necklaces.

Because it sure makes me happy to whip some up.

Ryan’s birthday

family, Ryan

By Karla Nathan / January 28, 2025

The 27th is Ryan’s birthday which makes his birthstone a garnet. I decided to make myself a garnet bracelet with a silver heart to wear on his day.

Bobbie’s last name was Valentine and the anniversary of losing her is two days after the holiday, so I made one in honor of her too.

After losing ones I love so much, reminders aren’t needed, they stay in my thoughts. Sometimes as a soft murmur in the background, others like a wail. Or a quiet giggle heard from across the room. A constant reminder.

Still symbols and trinkets while not needed, can be pleasant to have. With a glance at my wrist while wearing these, I can imagine Ryan looking over my shoulder while I am crafting and saying, “That’s cool, mom”. Or sharing pictures of my creations with Bobbie, who loved making beaded bracelets too.

Grief hasn’t left me, but it does take on different forms. Since losing my sister in February, I’ve had some rough patches. There were some times when I simply didn’t care much about the world around me, and I was doing just the bare minimum to get by. Some days, maybe I didn’t even get that much done.

I might be in a better place right now, but who knows. The sadness is always there, the missing them never ends.

We lost a kind hearted brother this year too. I grieve for him and his family who are experiencing a year of “first times without”.

I have no advice for anyone who has experienced death of a loved one. All I know is that those I love will always be with me. And I take solace in the little things, the sound of Ryan’s wind chimes, fixing his favorite meal, making a bracelet with he and Bobbie in my mind as I create.

A good day out of the house and a FB snafu

antiques/junking

By Karla Nathan / January 25, 2025

Since all of the foundation work last fall, the holidays, then the huge job of switching booths, plus a blizzard and never ending, pipe freezing weather, I hadn’t gone shopping in months.

That’s hard to believe, isn’t it? Most of us antique dealers are only in the biz to support our junking habits.

My town is a gold mine of garage sales in the summer and I stock up well then. But I missed the thrill of the hunt. With Rich out of town and Sugarwings at mama’s, I took a mini road trip and filled my car to the brim.

I adore this bargain priced chest of drawers as is, with a bit of clean up. I am torn, since I also love painting furniture. At Juju, these things do better natural, but my booth is mostly light. Although I do think contrast is nice and a dark piece can be a great background to show off lighter pieces.

I’m leaning toward a good clean up on the base, with a sanded down top and a clear coat I kinda like that idea. But you never know, it could still get a coat of paint if I can’t stop myself.

As much as I liked the dresser, I almost passed it up due to needing to replace the hardware. That could’ve cost me as much or probably more than the piece itself. Then I spied drawer pulls for 50 cents each.

Once I spent what felt like a huge chunk of my day out digging through this bottomless box of screws to find a dozen to fit, I almost gave up again.

I braved through the ordeal and started to load my new treasure up, and was pleasantly surprised when two workers took it off my hands and out to the car. It’s not often that stores will load furniture for you any more. It was my lucky day overall. A very old, very cool piece, 6 handles with a complete set of screws, and a car full off smalls. Plus two nice kids to carry the heavy thing.

A great day!

Ps- if you have depended on my links on the Karla’s Cottage FaceBook page to know when there was a new blog posting, gosh I am sorry. Yep, I’m still blogging, and yep, I’ve been linking on FB, both on my business and personal pages. But no posts on the business side are on there, since October!

Who knows why. And I hadn’t looked for the same reasons I hadn’t shopped. I have found a work around for future links, so you will find them there again. Thanks for your patience.

Heartfelt

Good JuJu, Hearts, Painting with thread, sewing?

By Karla Nathan / January 22, 2025

January’s sale at Good Juju was cut short due to horrid, terrible, awful, nasty, cold, blizzardy weather.

Surprisingly, we had quite a few customers brave the oncoming storm and shop with us. I was quite pleased and thankful that those guests came to see us.

Still, it wasn’t quite a full crowd.

Typically, holiday goods are sold in advance of the actual month of the celebrations, so January is when most of my Valentine inventory would be on display. Since we didn’t have our regular, larger turnout, I’m using that as an excuse to keep making heart themed crafts and bringing them in, even though the sale is only one week before the holiday.

Honestly, I love making hearts. And in my opinion, they aren’t seasonal. I figure I can keep bowls of velvet and lace hearts out year round. Right now, they look like they are blatantly Valentine’s Day items. But without the candy boxes and other decor around them, I think I can keep on making these to bring in.

But not this one, it is going as a gift to someone special.

It isn’t taking long to fill up my new booth at Good Juju with my junk, you can’t even see the beautiful walls we built any more

antiques/junking, Good JuJu

By Karla Nathan / January 19, 2025

Well, I’m moving in!

The new space is approximately divided into two areas, the back is my regular stuff while the entrance is jewelry.

With a larger space, I realized I needed bigger furniture so it would feel more to scale. This cabinet had to be pilfered from my studio so I’d have a solid “anchor” piece in the back. The door was placed next to it for the same reason. I didn’t want to use too many white tables stacked up. That worked well in my half space, but a full booth required substance.

This felt like it gave the room more balance.

Small, white tables were definitely used a lot, they work great. But before I brought in the big cabinet, that section needed more umph.

I still need to get a clip light for that top shelf in the cabinet, then this side is ready to roll for First Friday weekend.

I love, love, love, love, love the pergola/entryway Rich built for the doorway leading to Beth’s space next door! So much so that I told myself I would leave it empty to show it off.

Hmm, it seems to have some things hanging on it. Oh well, I tried! At least it isn’t completely covered. You can still see the structure.

Not quite the entire front half is jewelry. One wall is still stuff. I think this area is complete too. I’m still working on the jewelry spaces and will show that later.

“IT’S SO FLUFFY I COULD DIE”- As Agnes says in Despicable Me

antiques/junking, Good JuJu

By Karla Nathan / January 14, 2025

Despite the harrowing cold, I bundled up, then we filled the truck with wood, paint, and power tools to overhaul bare two by fours into making my new booth feel cottagey and welcoming.

In a week, we faced two walls with tongue and groove. This one got distress painted.

This one was painted a soft, green/blue.
And columns were added as trim.

Two other walls were crafted from a rougher lumber, some with a live edge. I liked the look so much, I decided to leave them raw and natural.

One got an iron shelf and the second, a hand painted garland of roses.

We also hung clusters of chandeliers to block the sight of a big vent, added more lighting and some decorative pieces. I wrapped the giant metal pole in vintage wallpaper and crushed velvet, and will use it to display necklaces hung on magnets.

Oh! And look at this! I love this walkway to the next door neighbors! (Although from the look on that neighbor’s face, she seems a bit judgey)

Seriously, I love it all.

It was sooooooooo much work, but exhilarating to do, because I was extremely excited about how each area was turning out. I love every square foot of my new cottage at Juju. We had such lucky timing to be gifted truckloads of attractive lumber. Those various textures and sizes of boards add so much more character than the plywood we would’ve had to use without the freebies.

We worked so hard, that I wasn’t even cold. I actually pulled off a couple layers because I was getting overheated. The temperature inside the building is set just high enough to keep the pipes from freezing and it’s always chilly inside. I surprised myself by not even being bothered by it. The worst part was unloading the truck in icey snowdrifts. The outcome was worth the effort.

Much of it is more than I really needed to have done. But we had the week to do it, the free materials, and to me, having a wonderful back ground will bring joy to me every time I go into work. I’m already filling it up, and it hurts a little to cover up my pretty walls. Still, I’ll know they are there, peeping out from behind my piles of stuff, and it will make my heart happy,

What I did while it snowed

Good JuJu, jewelry

By Karla Nathan / January 11, 2025

While avoiding the swirls of snow and freezing winds, I snuggled into my studio and made jewelry.

Along with valentines candy boxes.

Mostly jewelry. One day, that was all I did, til time to make dinner and watch tv. I do not allow myself to sit in front of the television before six, or that would be all I did instead of create.

I finished lots of watch face pieces and charm necklaces.

A handful of charm bracelets. (Or should I say an armful?)

Including Cheifs themed ones.

After whipping out a bunch of Cheifs colored pieces, I had a mini panic moment. As a non sports type, it dawned on me that I do not know anything about football season ending dates.

With my venue only open two days a month, my time to hawk these was pretty limited, and did I completely miss the time of year when people would be donning their red and yellow gear and cheering on the team?

I looked it up and saw that the Super Bowl was still an option in February. So if the local team is playing there, I’ll have a huge opportunity. If not, possibly the fans are still backing them and not fair weather followers? I should stick with what I know, and not try to follow trends or teams, or use colors that do not appeal to me because I think they could be popular, huh?

Although, if I were to be a supporter of a team, I’d much rather wear some vintage jewelry in the jersey’s colors redesigned into something new. And I really liked the way they came out.

Not all of the necklaces I made were vintage. This one is a silver chain with some simple stones on it.

This is a 14kt gf chain with faceted amethyst beads holding an amethyst pendant framed in 10kt gold. I don’t know if this type of thing will fly at Juju, most of my pieces are lower cost, this will have to be a bit higher.

I do love working with both the old pieces and the precious or semi precious. And doing minor repairs instead complete do-overs. I’d been collecting vintage pendants, that needed new chains, or stones reset, or other little fixes. So a pile of those were completed too.

My two days of playing with baubles were too short. By then, Rich got the drive plowed and we were off to working on the new space at Good Juju. That was not nearly as much fun, and we are still doing the manuel labor to get walls built, chandeliers up, electrical cords strategically placed and painting done before moving in. Rich has been an amazing help in this project and I’m excited about how it will turn out.

It might be more fun to create jewelry, but this booth make over is very exciting. And I’ll be glad that we made the effort once it’s finally done. Plus this spot is twice the size of my previous booth. I can devote an entire quarter of it to my jewelry display.

A cold snap, a very, very cold snap

cottage

By Karla Nathan / January 8, 2025

The weather has been bitterly cold and the storm cast a damper over our Good Juju weekend I was surprised by how many people still came by to visit us, right up til the time we closed early on Saturday.

At first, it wasn’t so bad, being snowed in by a cozy fire with a houseful of happy dogs ready to relax with us while we read.

Having a couple of days “trapped” in my studio to do projects and sip tea wasn’t bad either. I was content to stay in and not face the drifts outside. But Rich braved the frigid temps to plow our drive and others’ too. First, he had to move three loads of lumber stored in the garage that were blocking the plow blade. He helped people jump start cars, did lots of snow removal, and was almost lost in a white out right in front of our house it became so treacherous at one point.

Our experiences with the storm were a lot different from each others. My main problem was drying off dogs and mopping the melting puddles up. Then trying to explain to those dogs that they really did not need to go right back out and do it again.

Mostly, I was kicked back crafting, reading, or making yummy pots of soup.

Doesn’t sound fair, does it? I’m afraid that I wasn’t much help at all. But my asthma doesn’t do well in the windy ice and snow. So the poor guy was on his own.

But then it got worse, our neighbor’s barn roof collapsed from the weight, with a horse inside. Rich flew down the road to go help free old Annie, and they were able to get her out. The next day, he spent more time out in the deep field of snow helping with her and thought she was going to be fine. We checked on her before dark to sadly find out that she got worse from the trauma and cold. She was a very sweet horse and will be missed.

The cold and snow are still with us, it will be a while before the temps get above freezing and we get to see all the pretty, but deadly, white fluff turn into swampy mud. For now, our driveway is passable and roads are clear. Luckily we didn’t lose power, had a warm house filled with plenty of groceries. These storms are very serious, I hope you stayed warm and safe.

Embroidered hearts

Hearts

By Karla Nathan / January 5, 2025

It’s only one day after the New Year has begun and what am I doing? Making hearts for Valentine’s Day.

Gotta stay a few steps ahead of the calendar if you want to be in retail!

I don’t mind, I love holidays. As soon as one ends I am excited about the next. And I love all things heart shaped.

Typically, I’d have been finished with Christmas and working on hearts before Santa even arrives, but this season, I’m lagging in my production. I’ll get there though.

Even if it involves needle and thread. (Although I did use a lot of glue too).

My job

Good JuJu

By Karla Nathan / January 2, 2025

First Friday Weekend at the Old West Bottoms is tomorrow.

I went all in on Valentines for this sale.

Our sale is Friday and Saturday 9-6 at Good Juju.

I celebrated the upcoming season of love with giant, vintage wallpaper hearts to decorate my booth.

Quite a bit of my previous holiday decor got recycled into Valentine’s Day. I enjoyed my painted ponies too much to tuck them away too soon.

I like decorating the ceilings in my space, changing it up seasonally is a fun project for me to plan.

Making things, crafting and decorating are probably my main reasons for having a space. I’ll sure never get Rich doing it. I’d probably be better off working for an hourly wage somewhere instead selling my stuff.

But between being at Juju with friends, talking to my kind customers, and making stuff, I’m pretty happy there.

I love my so called job!